Television and the Power of Visual

Culture

Chapter 5

No old media form ever disappears. They just

get reinvented into a new purpose. TV is
about to go through a profound reinvention.
Paul Saffo, director, Institute for the Future,
2005

Television:
The Good and the Bad

Diverts
Entertains
Informs

1960s Civil Rights

Times of crisis
McCarthy hearings

Violence
Sexuality
Impact on kids
Impact on disturbed
Unimaginative

Television
Development
Paul

Nipkow

1880s
Nipkow Disk

Broke pictures into light units that could be sent and decoded by
a receiver

Zworykin

and Farnsworth

Develop electronic broadcasting methods

Farnsworth makes distance broadcasting.

Beats RCA in ugly patent suit

Image Quality
1930s

sees U.S. adopt NTSC.

Standardized set production

Other

countries have higher-resolution

scanning rates.

Results in better picture

These

differences become obsolete with the

arrival of all-digital broadcast and reception.

VHF and UHF

VHF

Early for black and white

UHF
1950s
Expanded stations and
programming

Move to Digital
Analog

breaks down image into light pulses.

Remains analogous to the image or sound

reproduced

Digital

transforms image and sound into

information that a computer can process.

0s and 1s are new information language.

Sponsors
In

Golden Age (1950s) single-sponsor

programs typical

Colgate Comedy Hour

Kraft
GE

Networks

Dispute over content, in particular

Enter

feared sponsor control.

Pat Weaver

Forced advertisers out by raising costs

Weavers Strategies
Increased

length of average program

Increased sponsor cost as a result
Used the spectacular
Used the magazine format
Used musical specials
Plus

The Quiz-Show Scandals

Examples are $64,000 Question and
Twenty-One.

Corporate sponsors encouraged rigging to

heighten drama and get rid of unappealing
guests.
Scandal ended sponsors role in creating
content
Undermined democratic possibilities of
television
Spawned contemporary cynicism

The Big Three Networks

NBC

CBS

Walter Cronkite
First to use affiliates
60 Minutes
Katie Couric hired in 2006

ABC

Meet the Press since 1947

Huntley-Brinkley in 1956

World News Tonight

Networks dominate until about 1980.

Anthologies vs. Episodes

One time
Spectacular
Writers vehicle
Actors vehicle
Required more from
an audience?
Associated with
Golden Age of TV

More suited to
weekly grind
Same characters
week after week
Less creativity
demanded with prefab characters
Cost-effective

Guess which format survives?

Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Desperate Housewives
Greys Anatomy
Lost
24
CSI

What breaks down network

dominance?
HBO

Satellite delivery
FCC comes to cables rescue in 1972.

Independents

Superstations
Ted

Turner and WTBS

VCR

Time shifting

Newer Developments

DVRs (digital video recorders)

Fin-syn

Users can record multiple programs at any time.

Will DVRs shatter our current notion of prime-time
television?
End of extorting profits from old programs in syndication

Rise of infotainment

Cheap celebrity and quiz shows

The Business End of TV

Deficit financing
Network-produced programming

Reality TV
Low quality, high profit
Newsmagazines

Syndication and reruns

Evergreens

Media Giant

On the Fringe

Fringe time

Hybrid syndication

Just before prime time

Off-network syndication
Old programs
First-run syndication
Programs produced for syndication
Examples: the newer Star Trek programs The Next Generation
and Deep Space Nine

Cash and barter

Selling and controlling distribution

A. C. Nielsen
Ratings

Percentage of households tuned to a sampled

program

Shares

Percentage of homes tuned to a program,

compared with those actually using their sets at
the time of sample

PBS
Does it still serve a purpose?
Who will decide?